I received an email this morning from cousins Don and Joyce in British Columbia who were concerned that, as I had not posted a blog yesterday, I might not have arrived safely at my destination last night. Well, yes I had but it was a long a fractious day so I was too kn**kered to do any blogging when I finally checked into my hotel.
Yesterday didn’t start too well. My last chance of renting a car disappeared when the company finally admitted they had no cars available – 36 hours after I had made my booking. Charming! Anyway, Uber to the rescue at what appeared to be a reasonable price. The car turned up at 10.30 am on schedule. Luggage was piled on board and we were about to set off when the driver said :”where are we going?”. Although I was slightly surprised by this question as I had made the booking with the destination, I replied: “Koh Chang” to which he smiled and said: “Sorry, this car is only allowed to drive inside Bangkok. You have to hire a Uber SUV”.”! A few expletives deleted later and I was back to square one, booking a much more expensive SUV which dutifully turned up and we were on our way. As the journey progressed I became more and more pleased that I hadn’t rented a car because not only was the journey very long (app 400km) but also my Thai driver with all his sophisticated sat nav stuff and frequently asking for directions, got lost! Anyway we finally made it to the sleepy little ferry terminal somewhere near the Cambodian border
where my luggage was unloaded and Mr Uber SUV set off back to Bangkok again, poor guy.
The old rust bucket of a ferry, full of tourists and children returning home from school
took 45 minutes to cross to Koh Chang at a cost of slightly less than £2. This gave ample time for the young boys to have a game of kick about football and one sweet little young thing to do some reading homework.
The spectacular setting sun as we we neared the island certainly raised my slightly jaded spirits.
Koh Chang’s ferry port is not exactly Dover, Calais or Folkestone being slightly uncoordinated.
In short, there was just one taxi waiting. Thankfully though, a kind Indian couple who got to it first, offered to share it. By all accounts, Koh Chang is quite a big island, bigger than Koh Samui. And of course, my hotel was “far, far away” according to the driver. I thought this might be to justify his high price but it took nearly 1.5 hrs to finally reach my destination at the end of what had been a long and expensive day. Chartering a helicopter back to Bangkok would probably work out cheaper!
Driving on the main (only?) road to get to my destination I was struck by just how ‘samey’ everything seemed to be. Market stalls selling the same tat that you find in Bangkok, the same kind of restaurants and bars you find in Koh Samui or Phuket . Not quite the idyllic tropical island I was hoping for but my hopes were raised as the roads became narrower, the traffic less and I had finally arrived – about 8 hours after starting out!
After a sleep deprived night, courtesy of some thumping bass sound coming from the middle distance, I was ready to check out this morning and move on. But then I opened the curtains and took in the view
and decided to stay for a while!
This place is really quite isolated
so you just can’t pop out to the shops, restaurants or bars which is a problem I will have to to overcome later. But there is a tiny beach, complete with seat on which to rest weary limbs (yes, it’s hot)
and it’s tranquil, quite peaceful (except for the ubiquitous motorcycles zooming past your door) and much more typically Thai than most of the resorts I passed last night on the way here.
Across the bay is the small town of Bangbao which can easily be reached by road or by walking the short cut which I did.
By all accounts, this used to be a sweet little fishing village but has succumbed to the relentless demands of tourism which now accounts for about 85% of the business here, much of it being in sightseeing boat trips
and dive excursions.
The old fishing pier has, fortunately, been retained so there is still a certain quaintness about the place
so lacking in many of the other tourist ‘hot spots’.
Although there is a small road directly outside my front door leading, I think, to a couple of backpackers hostels, my hotel is really quite far from anywhere. Fabulous up to a point but if I am to continue my Phileas exploring I need transportation and, from what I have seen and experienced, taxis are not in abundance here. So I have taken the plunge and hired a scooter plus helmet!
It’s quite a sweet little thing and doesn’t seem to go very fast so I should be OK. All pretty scary stuff though so fingers crossed and we shall see.
Phileas
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